We celebrate World Autism Awareness Week 2-8 April 2016
Coventry’s Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopment Service raise awareness of Autism for World Autism Awareness Week, in association with the National Autistic Society.
On Wednesday 6 April, the team donned the pink and purple colours of the National Autistic Society, collected donations and set up a display board in the City of Coventry Health Centre. As part of the display, service users were asked to give their thoughts on what was positive about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and what advice they would give to others with ASD. Comments included “The good thing about autism is I get to have fun with it, and have my own imagination”, along with “Go to lessons” and “Look for help on the internet”.
The Neurodevelopmental Service is a multi-disciplinary team, which now offers preassessment sessions for families and their children before assessment and possible diagnosis, and provides a number of parent education sessions to support parents and carers after their child’s diagnosis. They also provide training for the Youth Offending Service and the West Midlands Fostering and Adoption Service to provide them with a better understanding of Autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The service expanded to Warwickshire last year.
If you suspect your child may have Autism, you should first talk to your GP and ask for a referral into the service. More information about the service can be found on Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust’s website at www.covwarkpt.nhs.uk and search ‘Autism’ or visit www.autism.org.uk